Bringing the Core to High School Students

"Wrestling with Hobbes and Locke might not be the average summer fare for most high school students, but for the past decade Columbia’s Freedom and Citizenship summer program has encouraged a small set of rising seniors to pursue an experience — and an education — outside the norm.

The four-week seminar (one week of orientation, three weeks of classes), which recently marked its 10th anniversary, aims to give underrepresented (minority, immigrant and/or low-income) New York City students a taste of college life before they embark on their final year of high school.

Monday through Friday students have a reading and writing assignment — roughly 20 pages of reading from a Core Curriculum text and then a one-page reflection on the work. Students discuss the readings the following day during a two-hour seminar. In addition, the students — who live in campus residence halls Sunday night through Friday evening — meet with tutors in the afternoon and evening to go over the classwork."